Forever War, Forever...
So, because I last read it more than twenty years ago and had zero memory of the gay theme that made such an impression on my dearest savant_da_rat, I just finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1975) and am starting The Forever Peace (1997).
- The most important fact about the war to most people was that if it ended suddenly, Earth's economy would collapse. (
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He's even more shocked to find out his elderly widowed mother is now lesbian; so much so, that after not seeing her for fifty years (or so), he sneaks out of her house in the middle of the night and never contacts her again.
Towards the end of the book, he's gotten tolerant of lesbian soldiers but is still twitchy about the males (oh, big surprise there.)
Further on, after another centuries-spanning trip in space, he comes back again and is revolted to learn that homosexuality was made mandatory and heterosexuality outlawed for a time (though the prohibition eventually eased) as a "birth control measure," which is ridiculous - a society which has time travel clearly has birth control, too.
But at the end of the book, Earth is completely asexual, run by clones who come out of tanks and do not have any kind of sex, though the hive-mind (Haldeman conflates cloning with hive-minds) says it is completely neutral: "I make no distinction between heterosexual play and homosexual." (No such thing as a bisexual in this book; and notice, heterosexuals still come first, automatically given precedence, as "male" is always listed before "female" on forms written in English, though this is not alphabetical order.)
The exception? "Breeder planets," where heterosexuals live a lesser life in terms of modern material goods, but mate and have children the old-fashioned way. (No mention of having homosex the old-fashioned way on breeder planets; one wonders if Haldeman realized that about 10% of breeder children are, always have been, and always will be, gay and a big whocking percentage on top of that will be bi.)
Oppressors are always most terrified that what they have done to others will be done to them, you notice? It's as if Haldeman couldn't imagine a world where orientation would be... a trivial matter and irrelevant in the legal sense. Where there would be equality and liberty instead of stigma and suppression.
That's Forever War. In Forever Peace, though I'm not far into it, the writer's attitude seems to have matured a little but I'll let you know how it goes. :)
I'm so sorry Aware has been invaded. :(
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